St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1887-11-05
FOR YOUNG MEN.
A GOOD HOME ONE OF THE BEST
OF ALL DEFENSES.

They Should Form Industrious Habits
Respect for the Sabbath Preservativs
Against Eyil-sunday Work Never Pros
perous-Turning Point in Their Lives.
BROOKLYN, October 30.-Six thousand
people, sitting and standing in the
Brooklyn Tabernacle, and all the adjoin'
ing rooms packed, and people turned
away! Such was the scene to-day. The
congregation sang:
Awake, my SOUL stretch every nerve,
And press with vigor on.
The Rev. T. De Witt Talmage, D. D.,
preached on the subject: Defense OF
Young Men," and took his text from II
Kings, chap. vi, V. II: "And the Lord
opened the eyes of the young man." He
said:
One morning in Dothan young theo-
logical student was scared by finding
himself and Elisha, the prophet, upon
whom he waited, surrounded by whole
army of enemies. But venerable Elisha
was not scared al all, because he saw the
mountains full of defense for him, in
chariots made out of fire, wheels of fire,
dashboard of fire, and cushion of fire,
drawn by horses with nostrils of fire,
and name of fire, and launches of fire,
and hoofs of fre-a supernatural
appearance that could not be seen
with the natural eye. So the old minister
prayed that the young minister might
see them also, and the prayer was an
swered, and the Lord opened the eyes of
the young man, and he also saw the fiery
procession, looking somewhat, l suppose,
like the Adirondacks or the Alleghenies
in this autumnal resplendence.
Many young men, standing among the
most tremendous realities, have their
eyes half shut or entirely closed. May
God grant that my sermon may open
wide your eyes to your safety, your op-
portunity and your destiny.
A mighty defense for young man is
good home. Some of my hearers look
back with tender satisfaction to their
early home. 1t may have been rude and
rustic, hidden among the hills, and archi-
tect or upholsterer never planned or
adorned it. But all the fresco on princely
walls never looked SO enticing to you as
those rough-hewn rafters. You can
think of no park or arbor of trees planted
on fashionable country seat so attractive
as the plain brook that ran in front of
the old farmhouse and sang
under the weeping willows. No
barred gateway, adorned with statue
of bronze, and swung open by
obsequious porter in full dress, has half
the glory of the swing gate. Many of
you have second dwelling place, your
adopted home, that also is sacred for
ever. There you built the first family
altar. There your children were born.
All those trees you planted. That room
is solemn, because once in it, over the hot
pillow, tapped the wing of death. Un-
der that roof you expect when your work
is done to lie down and die. You try
with many words to tell the excellency
of the place, but you fail. There is only
one word in the language that can de-
scribe your meaning. 1t is home.
Now, / declare it, that young man is
comparatively safe who goes out into the
world with charm like this upon him.
The memory of parental solicitude, watch
ing, planning and praying, will be to
him shield and a shelter. never knew
a man faithful both to his early and
adopted home. who at the same time was
given over to any gross form of dissipa-
tion or wickedness. He who seeks his
enjoyment chiefly from outside associa-
ton, rather than from the more quiet
and unpresuming pleasures of which |
have spoken, may be suspected to
be on the broad road to ruin.
Absalom despised his fathers house,
and you know his history of sin and his
death of shame If you seem unneces-
sarily isolated from your kindred and
former associates, is there not some
room that you can call your own? Into
it gather books, and pictures, and harp
Have portrait over the mantel. Make |
mirth stand back from the
threshold. Consecrate some spot with |
the knee of prayer. By the memory of
other days, fathers counsel, and a
mothers love, and a sisters confidence,
call it home.
Another defense for a young man is
industrious habit. Many young men, in
starting upon life in this age, expect to
make their way through the world by
the use of their wits rather than the toll
of their hands. A child now goes to the
city and fails twice before he is as old as
his father was when he first saw the
spires of the great town. Sitting in some
office, rented at a thousand dollars
year, he is waiting for the bank to de-
clare its dividend, or goes into the mar
ket expecting before night to be made
rich by the rushing up of the stocks. But
luck seemed SO dull he resolved on some
other tack. Perhaps he borrowed from
his employers money-drawer, and for
gets to put it back, or for merely the
purpose of improving his penmanship
makes copy-plate of a merchants sig
nature. Never mind, all is right in
trade. In some dark night there may
come in his dreams a vision of Black
wells Island, or of Sihg Sing, but it
soon vanishes. In short time he will
be ready to retire from the busy world,
and, amid his focks and herds, culture
The domestic virtues. Then those young
men who once were his schoolmates, and
knew no better than to engage in honest
work, will come with their ox-teams to
1raw him logs, and with their hard
hands help heaye up his castle.
This is no fancy picture. 1t is
life. / should not wonder